F1 Fanatic

Once the shock and the horror from the events in Las Vegas begin to wear off, there are some difficult questions that need to be asked: how did this ever happen? And what can be done to prevent it from happening again?

If there is one positive that can be taken from this tragedy, it is that the race at Las Vegas was the final event of the Indycar season. There are some six months before the next race in St. Petersburg, so Indycar is not under any pressure to rush in changes to the sport. They can make it safer, they can do it properly, and they will not necessarily have to do it in such a way that compromises the speed of the series – because I believe that slowing everyone down for the sake of it is a poor way to remember someone who dedicated their life to going faster.

I believe there were several factors that led to the pile-up. Taken in isolation, they are innocuous enough, but when combined, I think they played a significant role in the accident:

1) Las Vegas Motor Speedway – LVMS is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar. It is a 1.5-mile superspeedway with a tri-oval format. The banking in the corners is some twenty degrees (second only to Texas Motorspeedway, which has twenty-four degree banking). The entire circuit is designed to be as fast as possible; teams are able to run lower-downforce configurations than they would otherwise, and the lower G-forces mean there is less stress on the drivers. It is, quite possibly, too fast.

2) The $5 million bounty on the race – in an effort to promote the final race of the season, promoters offered an additional $5 million in prize money to any part-time driver who could win the race. Dan Wheldon was one of these drivers. I do not know exactly how many drivers took up a wildcard entry, but there were thirty-five drivers on the grid in Las Vegas, up from the usual twenty-five (Wheldon raced in the place of Alex Tagliani). That means that the grid at LVMS was 40% larger than it would normally be.

3) The decline of oval races – ever since CART and the IRL merged, the series has gradually gravitated towards road and street circuits, and this trend will only continue into 2012. Of the seventeen events on the 2011 calendar, only seven were on ovals. Eight of the seventeen races in 2010 were on ovals. In fact, the last time oval races out-numbered road and street races was in 2009. So even the drivers who have been in the sport for two years have less experience on ovals than some of the other drivers (ie Castroneves, Franchitti, Dixon, Power).

The question now naturally becomes what Indycar can do in order to prevent something like this from ever happening again. I believe the ICONIC cars – developed with Wheldon’s input – are a step in the right direction; large sections of bodywork have been placed behind the rear wheels in particular, which I think will prevent cars from launching off one another.

The important thing for Indycar is to not launch into a knee-jerk reaction in the wake of this tragedy. This is an emotional period and the eyes of the world will be on it for sure, but its best to allow the mourning and then take stock of whats happened and work to ensure the chances of a repeat of yesterday are eliminated.

They wont however, stop racing Ovals. Itsbuilt into the fabric of the American lifestyle and is part of their culture. The series is named after one after all. But, they should look into doing something & Ovals are clearly where the improvments should start. I dont know enough about track construction or Oval types, but what ive read in recent hours suggests that limiting how many cars can race abreast of eachother would help. Also, people are mentioning that the high banks are contributing as it allows faster speeds to be maintained, where as lower banks like in Indianapolis are shallow and wide giving more space for the drivers. From what I gather, these high banked ovals are to NASCAR specific specifications, can anyone either clarify or explain this?

Agree with PM however, fewer cars on the grid would help lower the chance of big crashes. I know the Indy500 has lots of cars too, but its a bigger track and more accomadating.

Edit: I was going to comment on racers that entered for the prize money and not part of the series. Whilst this is something to note, they clearly were good enough to get into the race so would have some racing ability to them. Even places like Le Man has had, and still does, Gentleman racers who race (typically in GT categories) yearly there.

I think the number of cars in the race was one of the biggest factors in the fifteen car crash, so if IndyCar revisit Vegas, they most certainly should have much less cars in the race.

@Bendana Sorry but I dont see reducing the speed as an option, if F1 was suddenly reduced to F3 speeds would it still be the same series? Changing the cars to reduce the risk of them getting airbourne is the best thing they can do, and they seem to have attempted that with next year’s design, although we’ll need to see how that goes.

I’m not particularly knowledgable when it comes to oval racing, but having guest drivers in the final of a premier event doesn’t make much sense to me, whether or not they affected the outcome. It sounds like the organisers were willing to do anything to increase their ratings, which in a sport like this isn’t a good thing.

I dont think the bounty was an issue here, Wheldon’s crash wasn’t influenced by it in any way other than the fact he started at the back, and there could easily have been someone else in his place.

I don’t think it’s in it’s death throes yet. And keep in mind, just because popular perception says that Americans don’t like road racing doesn’t mean it’s actually the case. From my experience, road racing still has a very good following here, there just simply isn’t the same amount of money in it at the moment.

“But what has really stayed the same [saftey improvements] is the catch fencing along the walls. Once the cars get in there it just starts ripping the cars apart. So maybe that is the next thing that needs to happen in terms of safety for race events.”

Quote from Paul Tracy 2003 Champ Car Champion. You’ve got to say, he’s absolutley right, the way catch fencing is designed keeps the cars from going through into the crowds or leaving the stadiums however, many narrow contact points will concentrate the preassure exerted on the cars enourmously and with the speeds the cars are going at, disintergration is inevitable and extremley dangerous.

I’ve got no idea what the alternative is though, apart from rethinking the design. In oval racing some sort of catch on the outside of the track is vital, but as has been proved, making it safer is equally important.

less wing = less downforce = more probs of going airborne. i think they where too many cars for that track.

2 abreast start and restart doesnt help also

@Joey-Poey Well down here in Florida theres almost no following of road racing at all. Sure, we have the 24 hours of Daytona, but when I went there, it was a whole bunch of NASCAR fans that could barely figure out what country that “Maa-sda” is from. And I’ve went to the last 4 12 hours of Sebring, and its really no better there. Actually, its worse. You have people pronouncing peugeot “pyo-gee-aht” and audi “odi”. And the drivers names were tragic. Its really just a bunch of 20 year olds riding lifted trucks drinking beer and blaring rock music till 2 in the morning, and then waking up to blare more rock music and drink more beer. Sure, we have some dedicated fans (The weird cow people are one example) but its mostly teens and old people.

Thats not to say I don’t like going to the 12 hours every year, I love the atmosphere and the people dressed in cow costumes give the race character that most F1 races lack. But there aren’t many real dedicated fans that love it for the history and exciting racing that it provides. I think that most Americans prefer oval racing to road racing because its a great spectator sport, and they would rather blare rock music and drink beer while sitting down all day than walk from corner to corner for 12 hours only to see one or two crashes. Thats why there isn’t any real interest here.